So he continued his recent trend of amassing as many Finnish players as he can in the organization by selecting center Aleksi Heponiemi with the 40th pick in the second round of the NHL draft on Saturday.

Heponiemi, 18, is from the same hometown of Tampere as Panthers’ top-line center Aleksander Barkov, the second overall pick of the 2013 draft. The sleightly built 5-foot-10, 150-pound Heponiemi...

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